COVERT OPERATIONS IN NICARAGUA ALLEGED

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000605550003-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 20, 2010
• Sequence Number: 3
• Publication Date: March 10, 1982
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/20: CIA-RDP90-00552R000605550003-9
RADIO TV REPORTS, IN~
4701 WILLARD AVENUE, CHEVY CHASE, MARYLAND 20015 656-4068
FOR PUBLIC AFFAIRS STAFF
PROGRAM ABC World News Tonight
STATION W J L A TV
ABC Network
DATE March 10, 1982 7:00 PM CITY Washington, D. C.
SUBJECT Covert Operations In Nicaragua Alleged
FRANK REYNOLDS: The President of the United States was
asked today whether this country is carrying out covert operations
against Nicaragua. The Secretary of State and the Secretary of
Defense were also asked the same question, and all three gave
basically the same answer, no comment, which does not necessarily
mean yes, but also may not mean no. So tonight we begin this
broadcast with what we have learned about U. S. intentions. in
Nicaragua and Central America. First, here is Carl Bernstein.
CARL BERNSTEIN: President Reagan, according to high
level sources, has authorized an extensive program of covert
CIA operations aimed at Nicaragua's Sandinista government. As
described. to ABC News, the covert operations fall into three cate-
gories: paramilitary, political,'economic and propaganda.
The paramilitary operations are to be undertaken by a CIA
directed force of 500 or more men drawn from the security services
of Venezuela, Colombia, Chile and other Latin American countries,
by another 1,000 man commando force being trained by Argentina at
the behest of the Reagan administration and as reported last month
by ABC News White House correspondent Sam Donaldson, and by special
action teams of former members of such elite U. S. military units
as the Green Berets. These teams, said to be comprised of fewer
than a dozen men each, are expected to engage in highly sensitive
Intelligence collection and demolition work, according to some
sources.
The paramilitary operations are. to be directed from a
chain of commando camps in Honduras, near the Nicaraguan border.
Some administration and intelligence officials, contrary to pub-
lished reports, are attempting to picture the operations as somewhat
limited In scope, scaled back, they say, from more ambitious plans
OFRCES IN: WASHINGTON D.C. 0 NEW YORK 0 LOS ANGELES *CHICAGO 0 DETROIT 0 AND OTHER PRINCIPAL CITIES
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/20: CIA-RDP90-00552R000605550003-9